A Measure of Blood

A tragic murder case preoccupies Richard Christie in George’s so-so seventh novel starring the Pittsburgh, Pa., homicide cop (after 2012’s Simple). Someone stabbed Maggie Brown to death, leaving her seven-year-old son, Matthew, to discover her corpse. The boy reported seeing a man arguing with his mother in their apartment—someone whom he’d seen once before, and who said he was Matthew’s father. With no relatives to claim Matthew, Christie decides to intervene to arrange for him to live with foster parents who are friends of the detective and who have been desperately hoping for a child. With the killer’s identity revealed early on, the narrative shifts from the police investigation to his efforts to both evade detection and connect with the boy he believes to be his son. Readers should be prepared for minimal complexity and an unremarkable plot. Agent: Otto Penzler. (Jan.)